Wednesday, June 25, 2014

A little off topic for this primarily lunar coin site, but on my main website 'BullionBaron.com' I have announced a new silver product that may interest collectors in the precious metals space. Pictured below is the 2014 Kangaroo 1 Gram Silver Card:

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Almost 1 year to the day after my post on the 'Tokelau 2014 Lunar Horse 1oz Silver Coin', images of the Tokelau 2015 Lunar Goat 1oz Silver Coins have surfaced (via AgAuNEWS). This will be the third coin in this particular series, starting two years ago with the lunar snake. The coin is soon likely to be available for pre-order through Modern Coin Mart, the 2014 lunar horse was listed last year for pre-order in June and started shipping in July.

Tokelau 2015 Lunar Goat Silver Coin

The design looks nice enough, but I worry that the soft look to their hair won't translate well on the finished product... it is one of the most difficult features of an animal to portray in the hard metal finish of a silver coin. Take for example the Perth Mint Koala Series, most of the images that the coin design is based on are fantastic on paper, but their fur can look much different on the coin itself:

2012 Perth Mint Silver Koala Coin

I will be interested to see an actual photo of the Tokelau 2015 Lunar Goat Silver Coins to see how well they pull off the hair. The coloured & gilded variants look good too.

The reverse proof finish will have a mintage of 50,000, a further 2,500 in proof, 1,000 gilded, 1,000 coloured and 2,000 in an antique finish.

It's still 8 months until the Year of the Goat begins in early 2015, but coin releases are likely to heat up well in advance of that over the new few months. I will be covering as many as I can on this site, I'd recommend hitting the link below to subscribe to email updates if lunar coin series interest you.

I had speculated that the Zeus coin would be a hit (suggesting a quick rise to $300+) on the morning of it's release after seeing the design and product specifications, citing the following reasons in a thread on Silver Stackers:

Low mintage

Copying the style of some of those popular coins coming out of Europe that start with ridiculous price tags

First of it's type by Perth Mint

First in the series

Custom display case (unusual for Perth Mint, but a step in the right direction!)

They were selling hot on the morning and I was too slow to checkout the 5 I tried to buy. Within days they had doubled in value on secondary markets such as ebay, selling for A$350-400+ after launching at $179. I don't think Perth Mint had anticipated the demand for the coin, but they have since announced they will be limiting sales on the new coin to one per customer:

The Perth Mint is reversing its previously stated position and will now restrict the number of Poseidon 2014 2oz Silver High Relief Coins to one per existing retail customer.

In recent days it has become increasingly clear that this coin, which has a maximum mintage of just 1,500, will be highly sought-after.

Unauthorised publication of a Poseidon coin image at the weekend increased enquiries at the Mint today with collectors expressing concern they could miss out if purchases remained unrestricted.

Under the one-per-customer policy, we are confident that more collectors will now get the opportunity to purchase the coin at issue price from the Mint.

The Poseidon 2014 2oz Silver High Relief Coin will be available on The Perth Mint website from 12.01am 3 June 2014 (AWST).

This is probably a fair policy to adopt to ensure collectors have the best opportunity to purchase the coin, but will reduce the ability to speculate on the coin, especially given that it means no free shipping (Perth Mint currently offers this worldwide for orders over $400) unless you intend on purchasing other coins.

In my opinion the high relief, rimless design with an antique finish is a winner and it reminds me of the success of the 'Mongolian Wildlife Protection series' which included popular designs such as the Hedge Hog, Owl & Wolverine:

Though I think Perth Mint will need to take more care in the production and finish of the coins going forward as some owners had reported scratches and dents were present on the back of the Zeus coins, presumably occurring during the antiquing process.